Literary Machines

Seminal work about HyperText by Ted Nelson, inspired generations of programmers.

Literary Machines (short title) is a book first published in 1981 by Ted Nelson and republished nine times by 1993. It offers an extensive overview of Nelson's term "hypertext" as well as Nelson's Project Xanadu. It also includes other theories by Nelson, including "tumblers" for addressing bits in files past and present, "transclusion" as a method for including original work in one's own work, and "micropayments" to pay for the use. The format of the book is nonlinear, as the chapters are arranged in such a way that the text can be read out of order. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Literary_Machines

Includes the text of the Vannevar Bush essay.

Highly recommended.

You can buy it in print from East Gate: http://www.eastgate.com/catalog/LiteraryMachines.html

You can also read it online (in jfax files!) from Ted Nelson's japanese server: http://www.sfc.keio.ac.jp/~ted/TN/PUBS/LM/LMpage.html